Lives in Limbo
London based photographer Sebastian Barros wants to remind us of the moments of unexpected beauty that have occurred during lockdown. He posted disposable film cameras to his friends and invited them to capture their early lockdown life.
Photography Sebastian Barros
“In a year of extremes when creatives the world over were forced inside and summoned to 'create', the urge to tell my own story authentically became conflicted. What can I say that's not already been said? How can I share my individual experience when the stories I was drawn to were ones of community, family, intimacy. And how do I find those stories when connection was reduced to the purely digital.
“Digital became a paradox for me – the internet kept us all connected but it also represented something unreliable and disappointing.”
Digital became a paradox for me – the internet kept us all connected but, in the early days of WFH, Wifi blackouts and Zoom freezes, it also represented something unreliable and disappointing. As a photographer I'm used to building my own perspective, I'm either on set or I'm documenting a world in motion – being unable to do either of those things or to rely on the internet was frustrating for me.”
“As lockdown restrictions look close to easing and a new study reveals that one in four people (26%) have found it harder to follow the Covid-19 rules now than they did during the first UK-wide lockdown, with bad weather, a feeling of being worn out by the crisis, and a belief that the restrictions are not being applied fairly among the reasons.”
Research from Kings College London and Ipsos Mori
“The only thing I could do was retreat from the digital noise, give agency back to my subject and try to communicate their stories as authentically and sensitively as I could. So that's what I've done.”
“I posted disposable film cameras to my friends and I invited them to capture their early lockdown life. No direction, No edits, No scripts. Just eight stories, simply told."
About Sebastian
Sebastian Barros is a British Sport & Documentary photographer based in London. He is inspired by the raw and gritty lives of grassroots people and strives to tell their stories in a powerful and authentic way.
To see more Sebastian’s work, please visit his website or follow him on Instagram
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